A company printed 10 small buildings in Shanghai in just one day; Ron Paul explains his thoughts on Bitcoin; meanwhile, the Supreme Court is pondering whether cops require warrants to look through cellphones. These discoveries and more after the jump.

On Berkeley, Calif., radio station KPFA’s “Sunday Show with Philip Maldari” over the weekend, the Truthdig editor-in-chief discussed the Internet’s capacities to liberate and enslave and cheered Kentucky Libertarian Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s defense of individual privacy in a recent, well-received speech at UC Berkeley.

Do any of the GOP’s proposals exhibit a willingness to make the kind of changes it will need to attract members of the growing groups that it has spent years antagonizing, such as Hispanics, Asian Americans, unmarried women, secular whites, and others? You’ve heard the expression “putting lipstick on a pig,” haven’t you?

Mitt Romney shares none of the libertarian Republican congressman’s misgivings about escalating war in the Middle East, and on the marijuana question, the “famously puritanical Romney would likely bring us back to the era of ‘Just Say No.’ ”

Journalist Michael Tracey was disheartened on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., where an arena full of liberals joined Vice President Joe Biden in cheering the extralegal killing of Osama bin Laden. Tracey sought the counsel of New York Times columnist David Brooks, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Barney Frank.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: We take a hard look at the 2012 GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., from the partying to the homophobia to the shadowy fundraising. And what’s this about welfare reform?

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: We take a hard look at the 2012 GOP convention in Tampa, from the partying to the homophobia to the shadowy fundraising. And what’s this about welfare reform?

The tea partyers are useful hucksters, but those barbarians are not yet at the gate. The real fear and loathing rest where they have always been, in the familiar guise of freshly tailored suits, cigar-chomping patriarchs with their women trailing five steps behind.

With Mitt Romney’s coronation already imperiled by a disaster of the natural variety, some of Rep. Ron Paul’s 177 delegates are warning GOP string-pullers not to go through with proposed rule changes that would limit the potential of future Ron Pauls.

It’s not quite ending the U.S. central bank, as Ron Paul is fond of saying he would like to do, but the Texas GOP congressman did get a bill passed through the House on Wednesday to audit the Federal Reserve.

Ron Paul has considerable leverage at the GOP’s national convention resulting from his enthusiastic national support, which could allow him to modify the Republican platform, land a prime speaking spot or even have a shot at the vice presidential nomination.

A look at the day’s political happenings, including a top Obama administration official facing a contempt vote, a new birther conspiracy and “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart takes on Fox News (yet again).

A look at the day’s political happenings, including an endorsement from Rand Paul (above), Obama’s “gift” to Republicans and Jon Stewart’s take on efforts in New York to criminalize soda and decriminalize pot.

He doesn’t lack enthusiastic supporters, nor is his campaign short on cash, and he’s galvanized scores of younger voters. So why isn’t Ron Paul able to clinch the Republican presidential nomination—or even come within spitting distance—this time around?

It’s not exactly a bold or risky move at this point—more like he knows which way the wind blows—but former Florida governor and current Bush clan member Jeb Bush has pledged his support to Mitt Romney’s campaign for the presidency.

The fact that Newt Gingrich, who has done little to impress in this Republican primary, can afford to stay in the race tells you why Mitt Romney’s huge win in Illinois on Tuesday night actually means very little.

There’s horse-race politics, but then there are also bona fide plot twists in the presidential campaign season, and we’re looking at one of them with the boost conservatives are giving Rick Santorum—yes, he of the sweater vest—as he and the formerly more confident Mitt Romney get ready for Arizona and Michigan primaries late this month.

Something interesting happens when hardworking, fiscally minded Americans find themselves on the public dole: They resent the government that lends a hand and feel guilty for accepting help. A major article from The New York Times documents the anxiety, frustration and confusion of a growing class of dependent Americans.

At Saturday’s Republican debate, Mitt Romney got creative with the number of jobs generated during his tenure at Bain Capital, Ron Paul called MLK a “hero” after being questioned about a newsletter of his that trashed the man as a “world-class adulterer,” and Rick Santorum told the audience that social class doesn’t exist in America.

Republicans, start your engines. With the Iowa causues in the rear-view mirror and New Hampshire and South Carolina up next, the GOP primary field has pretty much narrowed to Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. What might the great minds of “Left, Right & Center” think of these presidential wannabes?

In this clip from Thursday’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” Rolling Stone’s provocateur du jour, Matt Taibbi, weighs in on a decision by the Montana Supreme Court that could deal a substantial blow to the notorious Citizens United SCOTUS ruling of 2010, which represents at least one issue around which some conservatives and progressives can rally for change.

It would seem that the United States has a five-party system right now. What was done in Iowa last Tuesday could unravel in New Hampshire, but whatever happens next, the United States is more politically fractured than it has been in decades.

The clear crossover vote-getter issue on which Ron Paul has differed from the rest of the candidate crowd is war: his hostility to the commitment of both Democratic and Republican administrations to prosecuting undeclared war in the Middle East, South Asia and elsewhere.

Although there’s already been some infighting among the ranks of this election cycle’s Republican presidential hopefuls, it’s going to get only crazier from here on out. And with candidates’ fates shifting as quickly as they have this time around (Herman who?), you can bet that rival GOP camps are going to do their darndest to stir up the drama.